How to identify your niche?

I regularly see social and creative business clients who have identified a target market because they think it makes the most logical sense, it will make the most money, or will attract the most funding.

(Many of my crafts clients focus on the high end luxury market, but they actually hate working for rich people who don’t appreciate their skills and love for making their hand-made work.  On the other end of the scale, I have worked in and with various non-profit organisations were ‘chasing the money’ became more important than actually serving the end users.  Both are very easy traps to fall into – especially when things get financially desperate!)

Don’t make that mistake! The end result is that you will feel upset, frustrated, uninspired and won’t do the best work you can do.  To be able to have a thriving and sustainable business you need to have a passion for your work and work with people who inspire you, to give you the energy to keep going and improve all the time!

Exercise 1 to identify my niche market

1. Who are your (current) client groups or target markets? Identify specific facts about them i.e. gender, location, industry, age. What are they interested in, what do the read, what hobbies have they got?  And then go a bit deeper than the facts: what do they dream about, what are their worries or challenges, what do they need help with?  It really can help you to write a short story about your client group, who they are, what they do.  Or create a collage     with collected images of what they would look like, what they wear, what they read.
2. Who are your favourite clients? Who do you like forward to seeing again and working with?  What kind of personality, energy or values have they got?  What are their challenges or dreams?  It is for this group of people that you will make your best work, and that is the best and easiest marketing possible!  Look at the overlap with your current client groups, and identify what the gap is between your existing clients and your favourite clients. You might need to face the fact that you want to sack some clients who you don’t want to work for….
3. What are you passionate about? What are your special talents?  What are your core values?  What specific services would you offer? What is your ‘soap box’ topic? What are you obsessed about – and doesn’t feel like work at all?  Be as specific as you can.  Often we are too close to ourselves to really see these, so you might like to contact 5 people from across your life to answer these questions for you!
4. What makes you you? What are your own demographics? What are your hobbies or life challenges that might connect you to a specific audience? What can you deliver, how do you deliver, when can you deliver?  What are your specific talents and strenghts?  This is really about: what makes you uniquely you?  If you can figure this out, and communicate that well, then you get something that is very difficult to replicate.
5. If you combine these different areas, what is the (partial) overlap?  This is called the sweet spot. Maybe at this stage you can identify a couple of overlaps, just dot them down for now. Can you make a list now with the names of 20 potential clients for each of these sweet spots?  If not, you might need to do some more research by digging deeper or by researching more potential clients.
6. Go out there and try these different sweet spots. Nothing beats actual feedback from potential clients!  Have some fun with it, try out different ways of introducing yourself, of presenting yourself.  Find out if there is a market who is willing to pay for what you do. Tweak it if necessary, just a slight different approach might do the trick!

So to really sum it up: niche marketing is a combination of you and your talents and what the market wants – indeed what gives you energy and where do you want to spend your energy?!

My own journey

To discover my own niches I have gone through lots of different paths.  I trained in graphic design, and knew earlier on that I would be best in managing creatives than being one!  I work specifically with creative and social entrepreneurs and small business owners in the UK and the Netherlands.  I have become more interested in social enterprises over the last couple of years as I worked in one, and I think there is a better way of doing business for our families, communities and the world (and also we need to be creative with income generation in these economic times!)  I have got a lot of experience in working with clients through my role as business adviser, and working in similar companies myself. I know very specifically what business areas my potential clients need help with, but also the emotional and financial benefits working with me can provide (i.e. more clarity in their vision, more confidence in their own judgement, a clear to do list targeted at getting clients, having somebody there as a friendly kind of executive director when you work by yourself).

I have learnt the hard way to state now more clearly that I work specifically with creative people in design and crafts, and that I want to work with passionate and talented people only who want to really get into action to put in the hard work to create a better business for themselves, their families and the world (I don’t like working with people who aren’t passionate, who turn up late, or expect a ‘fairy wand’ to do all the hard work for them. If I don’t believe in somebody’s business idea, then I find it difficult to work with them too.)  I now ask specifically for their commitment.

I have also recently become very interested in online learning, and the possibilities of that to create a more international business, with both online and telephone coaching (which is accessible to my busy clients wherever and whenever they want, and will allow me to use video and visualization exercises, and other creative tools).  Many of my (international) clients have very busy lives, and want creative and practical support (no boring office meetings!), so this fits perfectly. (So watch this space, as more online creative tools will be launched!)

Here are some other examples of my clients:

• My sister has got a disabled teenage daughter who is incontinent and sits in a wheelchair.  For a really long time my sister found it impossible to find funky, colourful clothes for her to wear.  She is a creative person, so started making her own clothes, and many of her friends commented positively.  Fast forward 5 years later and she has got a thriving online fashion business for disabled kids, that she can run while working around the demands of a very busy family life!  She is very good in getting referrals and repeat business due to her niche.  Her marketing mostly exist out of sending additional postcards with orders to hand out to friends, a monthly e-newsletter, and exhibiting at 2 disability trade fairs. (Check the website out here)
• A recent client wanted to become a freelancer in project management for social enterprises. She indeed had very strong project administration skills, took initiatives but also kept managers well informed, and very diplomatic with people in different situations.  She was fed up in her job, where she had little growth prospective and had lost her confidence.  She was worried about her job opportunities in the current economic climate, and didn’t really know where to go next.  We identified how important it was for her to work in and contribute to her local community, she is passionate about good food and yoga, and loves gardening.  She started working as a freelancer, identified that she needed additional fundraising training, and after some consultancy work and volunteering, she recently landed a great job as project manager at The People’s Supermarket.
• An illustrator I have worked with had designed lots of different products in different styles, working happily along without any strategic planning, but she knew she wasn’t selling as well as she knew she could.  After a trade show we realised that the products in itself were good, but that the collection and presentation was unclear to retailers.  We simplified her collection together, ordering products around different themes and styles (giving each collection a working title i.e. fairy tales, 1950’s Copenhagen), identifying target groups (i.e. Bollywood Kitsch, Vintage High Street Gift Shop, Colourful Brighton) which made it easier to identify potential retailers.  We also cut out more than 60% of the collection, and added new products at different (higher!) price levels.  She recently exhibited at Top Drawer (the giftware trade show) with her ‘new’ collections, and sales were up by 150%!

Exercise 2 to identify your niche: 7 passions, 7 problems, 7 fears

This is an exercise I picked up from Pat Flynn of The Smart Passive Income Blog.  On his blog he writes specifically about a niche challenge with a friend and gives an insight in his process of how to develop a niche website, highly targeted with key words etc.  To identify his niche he brainstorms and mind maps 7 passions, 7 problems and 7 fears that people regularly have.  He then selects out of that group a list of 10 potential niches based on what interests him the most.  You might like to watch his video here.

(PS I personally do have a bit of a problem with niche web sites that seem to be only created for profitability reasons, with the people behind it having very limited real understanding of the market or the products or services.  I think it is much stronger to have an integrated business based on your passions and strengths, that is promoted in real life as well as on the web.  I think that most potential clients are savvy enough to see through purely commercial websites, without any passion behind it.)

If you liked this article, you also might like my earlier blog about How to start with niche marketing